- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (1 Feb 1976)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0253359554
- ISBN-13: 978-0253359551
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,740,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
..". the greatest contribution to [semiotics] since the pioneering work of C. S. Peirce and Charles Morris." --Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
..". draws on philosophy, linguistics, sociology, anthropology and aesthetics and refers to a wide range of scholarship... raises many fascinating questions." --Language in Society
..". a major contribution to the field of semiotic studies." --Robert Scholes, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
..". the most significant text on the subject published in the English language that I know of." --Arthur Asa Berger, Journal of Communication
Eco's treatment demonstrates his mastery of the field of semiotics. It focuses on the twin problems of the doctrine of signs--communication and signification--and offers a highly original theory of sign production, including a carefully wrought typology of signs and modes of production. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First things first. Umberot Eco, towering intellect and has done more than anyone to popularize the concept of semiotics. I have to say though that I just read this again and found it difficult reading. Does anyone want to make a comment about this book. My overall view is that there are loads of important ideas in this book but scatty structure and poor signposting makes the logic difficult to follow. Overcoding and undercoding, the difference between signification and communication, signals, stimuli and signs and is all really important but seems lost through overcomplicated language and examples that I find hard to follow. I found his theory of sign production (vectors, imprints, ratio dificilis) unwieldy and did not really understand how it connected with the theory of codes. Isn't he supposed to be creating a toolkit for common use?
To my mind the most valuable thing about this book was his broadside against theories of (Peircean) iconism and I think this was really well written and pertinent showing how all sorts of semi-conventional correlations are smuggled in surreptitiously when we infer by analogy. Has this been taken on by mainstream semiotics yet? His stuff on six naïve notions, discussions of replicas and false analogies and on content nebulae and expression clusters I thought was brilliant and involved really acute observation and delicate parsing of ideas. I also liked how he talked about how codes change and how he defined the ideological text as something that switches codes under subterfuge and how the aesthetic text on the contrary is about making code switching deliberately palpable so as to challenge the decoder. The idea of ideology and art somehow being opposites was a super intriguing thought. I wonder where Social Realism as art would fit in here, or perhaps it is just kitsch (a la Kundera) and that's the point? Hmm.
Overall it is rare to find a work that submits both the epistemological and ontological foundations of semiotics to such scrutiny. He calls it a discipline and a field, I prefer to think of it as a perspective. I also like the way he picks up the behaviourist thread of Charles Morris in looking at the difference between signals / stimuli and signs. Overall it is an important work but I see it more of a critique than a useful theory which predicts qualia. Furthermore I find the text overly complex at times, the use of Latin seems pretentious at times and his tables could be simpler and more parsimonious. If anyone has studied with Eco or has a deeper understanding of this book then by all means shout and put me right. I do think it is an impressive work but wanted to humbly point out where feel it lacks structure.
To my mind the most valuable thing about this book was his broadside against theories of (Peircean) iconism and I think this was really well written and pertinent showing how all sorts of semi-conventional correlations are smuggled in surreptitiously when we infer by analogy. Has this been taken on by mainstream semiotics yet? His stuff on six naïve notions, discussions of replicas and false analogies and on content nebulae and expression clusters I thought was brilliant and involved really acute observation and delicate parsing of ideas. I also liked how he talked about how codes change and how he defined the ideological text as something that switches codes under subterfuge and how the aesthetic text on the contrary is about making code switching deliberately palpable so as to challenge the decoder. The idea of ideology and art somehow being opposites was a super intriguing thought. I wonder where Social Realism as art would fit in here, or perhaps it is just kitsch (a la Kundera) and that's the point? Hmm.
Overall it is rare to find a work that submits both the epistemological and ontological foundations of semiotics to such scrutiny. He calls it a discipline and a field, I prefer to think of it as a perspective. I also like the way he picks up the behaviourist thread of Charles Morris in looking at the difference between signals / stimuli and signs. Overall it is an important work but I see it more of a critique than a useful theory which predicts qualia. Furthermore I find the text overly complex at times, the use of Latin seems pretentious at times and his tables could be simpler and more parsimonious. If anyone has studied with Eco or has a deeper understanding of this book then by all means shout and put me right. I do think it is an impressive work but wanted to humbly point out where feel it lacks structure.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
84 of 85 people found the following review helpful
Symbols: Development of a Methodology of Communication
27 Oct 2000
Format:Paperback
The Italian Umberto Eco is a towering figure. A literary critic, novelist, and semiotician (studying symbols and symbol systems), he gained international recognition with "The Name of the Rose" (1980) in which he brought the study of semiotics to fiction. In this book, "Theory of Semiotics", he makes his contribution to the theoretical study of signs encompassing all cultural phenomena. His focus is on the development of a methodology of communication.
Like Roland Barthes, Eco starts from the foundations of semiotics in Saussure (Course in General Linguistics: who developed the idea of sign-systems and the sign/signified distinction, as well as the distinction between langue/parole - language and speech) and Claude Levi-Strauss (Structural Anthropology). Yet Eco surpasses this tradition to move into new territory, recognizing the limits to structuralism and Saussure's ideas. He recognizes, for example, that meaning is not merely governed by structure, but also interactively constructed by the reader/interpreter, who often inserts or fills-in missing meaning to construct a coherent picture.
Those interested in an introductory work to this fascinating field should be pointed to Eco's work "Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language" which is easier to start with.
21 of 33 people found the following review helpful
never again will words be the same
24 July 2003
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I stepped off the edge of normal thinking and rose to new heights of awareness. I have appreciated Mr. Eco as an author of great books, but I see him now as Dr. Eco, the man who makes words speak new meaning. When I listen to people, friends, family, (yes and God forgive me, TV talking heads) I no longer hear what they say, I see they are trying to express ideas with words they do not control. I just wish I could control them, the words, as Dr. Eco does. An excellent read, and excellant study and a great way to build your mind. Thank you Dr. Eco, mille gracie, mille, mille gracie.
7 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Poor printing and typography make reading painful
20 April 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Eco's "Theory of Semiotics" may well be a book of valuable content but I doubt if I will ever struggle through it to the end. The so-called "typesetting" is beyond pathetic for a University Press. It looks as though it were typed on an old 1970's Selectric ball typewriter which was badly in need of alignment. The text was appallingly slugged into the pages by an unskilled typist and then photo-copied numerous times to assure that reading it would cause pain and suffering to the hapless reader. The text is bold and blotchy with hiccups in letter alignment that makes one wonder if this were a low-tech pirated rip-off instead of the real thing. I would very gladly return this book if they would replace it with a text file that I could format myself and make readable.
My apologies to Umberto because I am a fan of his work in semiotics but the dear folks at Indiana University Press and perhaps "General Editor" Thomas A. Sebeok, need a lesson in typography from Robert Bringhurst or a visit from nearby Miles Tinker for a sound flogging with a pica ruler.
Chris Lozos
My apologies to Umberto because I am a fan of his work in semiotics but the dear folks at Indiana University Press and perhaps "General Editor" Thomas A. Sebeok, need a lesson in typography from Robert Bringhurst or a visit from nearby Miles Tinker for a sound flogging with a pica ruler.
Chris Lozos
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Philosophy
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Communication Studies > Semiology
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Linguistics > Reference
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Sociology
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
